Sky Blue rally to defeat visiting Orlando Pride

Jasmyne Spencer scored her second goal in two games, but it wasn’t enough as Sky Blue FC rallied to defeat the Orlando Pride 2-1 on Saturday night at Yurcak Field.

The speedy attacker scored the opening goal for the Pride in the 18th minute when midfielder Camila dished the ball to Spencer in the box, who then struck it past the goalkeeper for the 1-0 lead.

Sam Kerr leveled the score for Sky Blue before halftime before Maya Hayes scored the game-winning goal in the 81st minute after squeezing past the Orlando backline.

“I think the difference in the game was that we got punished for the errors. We said before the game that Sky Blue are a team that play with a great deal of spirit and a great deal of heart. They work extremely hard for each other, and I thought they did that exceptionally well tonight,” Pride head coach Tom Sermanni said. “On the other hand, I thought we had patches of very good play then we’d do some things that, really, we can’t afford to do at this level and give the ball away in positions that put us in real peril.”

The Pride (1-3-3, 6 points) are still in search for their first road win of the season.

Aubrey Bledsoe started as goalkeeper for Orlando after Ashlyn Harris was ruled out for 8 weeks after suffering an injury during last week’s game at Seattle. Ali Krieger wore the captain’s armband for the Pride.

Sermanni’s team returns to Orlando City Stadium to host the Boston Breakers on Saturday at 7:30 p.m.